Selective Smooth Fictitious Play: An approach based on game theory for patrolling infrastructures with a multi-robot system

The multi-robot patrolling problem is defined as the activity of traversing a given environment. In this activity, a fleet of robots visits some places at irregular intervals of time for security purpose. To date, this problem has been solved with different approaches. However, the approaches that obtain the best results are unfeasible for security applications because they are centralized and deterministic. To overcome the disadvantages of previous work, this paper presents a new distributed and non-deterministic approach based on a model from game theory called Smooth Fictitious Play. To this end, the multi-robot patrolling problem is formulated by using concepts of graph theory to represent an environment. In this formulation, several normal-form games are defined at each node of the graph. This approach is validated by comparison with best suited literature approaches by using a patrolling simulator. The results for the proposed approach turn out to be better than previous literature approaches in as many as 88% of the cases of study. Moreover, the novel approach presented in this work has many advantages over other approaches of the literature such distribution, robustness, scalability, and dynamism. The achievements obtained in this work validate the potential of game theory to protect infrastructures.     

Fast and accurate map merging for multi-robot systems

We present a new algorithm for merging occupancy grid maps produced by multiple robots exploring the same environment. The algorithm produces a set of possible transformations needed to merge two maps, i.e translations and rotations. Each transformation is weighted, thus allowing to distinguish uncertain situations, and enabling to track multiple cases when ambiguities arise. Transformations are produced extracting some spectral information from the maps. The approach is deterministic, non-iterative, and fast. The algorithm has been tested on public available datasets, as well as on maps produced by two robots concurrently exploring both indoor and outdoor environments. Throughout the experimental validation stage the technique we propose consistently merged maps exhibiting very different characteristics.

On the potential contributions of hybrid intelligent approaches to Multicomponent Robotic System development

The area of cognitive or intelligent robotics is moving from the single monolithic robot control and behavior problem to that of controlling robots with multiple components or multiple robots operating together, and even collaborating, in dynamic and unstructured environments. This paper introduces the topic and provides a general overview of the current state of the field of Multicomponent Robotic Systems focusing on providing some insights into where Hybrid Intelligent Systems could provide key contributions to its advancement. Thus, the aim is to identify prospective research areas and to try to delimit the field from the point of view of the following essential problem: how to coordinate multiple robotic elements in order to perform useful tasks.     

Decentralised consensus-based formation tracking of multiple differential drive robots

This article investigates the control problem for formation tracking of multiple nonholonomic robots under distributed manner which means each robot only needs local information exchange. A class of general state and input transform is introduced to convert the formation-tracking issue of multi-robot systems into the consensus-like problem with time-varying reference. The distributed observer-based protocol with nonlinear dynamics is developed for each robot to achieve the consensus tracking of the new system, which namely means a group of nonholonomic mobile robots can form the desired formation configuration with its centroid moving along the predefined reference trajectory. The finite-time stability of observer and control law is analysed rigorously by using the Lyapunov direct method, algebraic graph theory and matrix analysis. Numerical examples are finally provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the theory results proposed in this paper.     

A novel approach to coordination of multiple robots with communication failures via proximity graph

In this paper, we investigate the coordination problem of multiple robots with limited communication ranges and communication failures. A novel rendezvous algorithm via proximity graph is developed so that the robot group can achieve rendezvous when the communication links satisfy an ergodic assumption. The convergence proof of the algorithm is established based on the tools from rooted graph theory. The effectiveness of the algorithm is illustrated by numerical examples in a 3D space.